Urban Transformation: a Case Study on 7 Çukurambar, Ankara

Year 2006, Volume: 19 Issue: 3, 173 - 183, 29.03.2010

Bilge Armatlı Köroğlu Özge Yalçıner Ercoşkun

Abstract

The social and economic development in mid 20^th century Turkey has inevitably resulted in a rapid urbanization process that has determined the form of big cities. As  society experienced huge social transformation, the cities have been powerfully shaped by the illegal squatter settlements, built by the immigrated population for their urgent needs for shelter on seized lands.  The demand for shelter has transformed into a complex social, economic, cultural and political problem that could not be solved  yet. The aim of this paper is to analyze the urban transformation to find some clues for the solution of gecekondu and urbanization problems. For this, the paper focuses on the Çukurambar neighborhood, an original gecekondu area in Ankara that differs from many examples developing on public land. Çukurambar  is an interesting example with a strategic location in Ankara, where the land is privately owned. This area without an organized urban transformation project, left to market mechanism in a speculative way, ignoring gecekondu population living there. Hence, the paper explains the rapid transformation of the Çukurambar neighborhood, from gecekondu area into high rise housing blocks, highlights its socio-spatial impact on the character of the urban space of Ankara and identifies a unique market led solution in this case.

 

Keywords: Urban transformation, gecekondu, high-rise residential buildings, Çukurambar, Ankara

Keywords

Urban transformation, gecekondu, high-rise residential buildings, Çukurambar, Ankara

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